KGG509 Professional Practice

Aboriginal people can be considered as the true native people living in a particular region. People living in Australia can be divided into indigenous and non-indigenous people. There are major health and cultural gap among these Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islander people compared to non-indigenous Australian. Recently Australian government (Cashman et al. 2016, pp. 1-7) trying to closing these gaps, however, still there is a long way to go (Cashman et al. 2016, pp. 1-7). Indigenous people have poor determinants of health such as; geographical factors, environmental factors, economic and cultural differences (Carson et al. 2020, p. 336). The difference in the social determinants of health among Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people in Australia causing poor health of these indigenous people. To understand this difference, this report is going to discuss four main determinants of health factors, which are education, employment and income, racism and racial discrimination, health behaviours and lifestyle factors.

Education

Education is a crucial part of the lifestyle factors (Carson et al. 2020, p. 336). A good level of education can improve the understanding power of an individual. According to an article, education is an important part of social determinants. It can improve a person's day to day activity. According to this study, a good level of education will improve the living pattern of an individual (Gumà, Solé-Auró & Arpino, 2019, pp. 1-9).

However, in Australia, there is a large educational gap between the aboriginal and non-aboriginal people. According to some report, the adult literacy rate among the aboriginal group is 40% whereas, the education level among non-aboriginal people is 70% (Martin et al. 2021, pp. 1-21). This is a huge gap that needs to be overcome by the government. According to the Indigenous Literacy Foundation, (Indigenous literacy foundation 2021) only 36% of the aboriginal year 5 students in a remote area are above the minimum educational standard. Also, this rate gets lower in a more remote area. In contrast, among non-indigenous students of the metropolitan city, almost 96% has a minimal educational level (Indigenous literacy foundation2021). According to the United Nations report, indigenous children feel more tired, ill and hungry while arriving at school.

Often time they have to face bullying and other forms of corporal punishment. Racism and cultural decimation are also common in the educational sector. All of these factors increasing the dropout rate among aboriginal school children (un.org, 2021). Data from the Australian Bureau of statistics suggest, among aboriginal group aged between 25-34 years, almost 49% has a level III certificate in 2018-2019. The number of postgraduate qualified students among them in 2016 was 3708 (ABS, 2020). However, according to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, there is still a 10% of educational gap between aboriginal and non-aboriginal people (AIHW, 2019a).

However many reports suggest there is still a significant amount of education gap mainly in a very remote area (Sullivan, McConney & Perry 2018, p. 215). According to a report, the Australian healthcare sector urgently needs more aboriginal workers to promote the health of people living in a rural area. According to this report, the number of indigenous students who are enrolling in the domestic health care sector is only 2.1%. The author also mentions the gap is due to their professional level of education (Taylor, Lalovic & Thompson, 2019, pp. 1-19). Therefore, a fewer number of aboriginal people in the health sector causing less health promotion of this community. Also, education is important to improve health perception. The level of health literacy is low among these groups due to less education. This condition causing them to lead a poor lifestyle, increasing the number of chronic diseases. This group of people does not know about the importance of a healthy diet, daily exercise, which increases the rate of diabetes and cardiovascular disease (Rheault et al. 2019, pp. 1-10).

Employment and income

The employment status and wellbeing of a person both are closely associated. Employment is important to maintain economic stability. To get employed in an organization proper education level is important. Employment and income is an important part of the socioeconomic status of a person (Carson et al. 2020, p. 336). Economic stability can help a person to choose better life choices. An economically stable person has better access to health service, a good diet and has social respect. The economic condition can greatly influence a person's decision making power. In contrast, the poor economic condition can limit the choices to enjoy a quality of life. Also, the poor economic condition can lower the social respect of a person (Carson et al. 2020, p. 336).

In Australia, aboriginal people have less level of employment compared to non-aboriginal people. According to report, from 2006 to 2016 the rate of employment among the aged 15-64 aboriginal group was 48% to 46.6%, indicating a decrease in the rate; whereas the rate among non-aboriginal groups was 72%. According to this report in 2006-16, the chance of unemployment among aboriginal groups was 1.9 times higher compared to the non-aboriginal group (AIHW, 2019b). This unemployment greatly impacted their socioeconomic status and income level. Almost 55% of aboriginal Australians aged 15 or more has an income of $1 to $799 per week. In a very remote area, the rate of income is even lower (AIHW, 2019c). According to the Parliament of Australia, the level of poverty is high among aboriginal people.  According to this report, the poverty level is 2 to 3 times higher compared to non-indigenous people. Almost 30% of the aboriginal people have a household income at the poverty level, with 120000 aboriginal people living below the poverty level (Parliament of Australia 2021). The main cause of poverty among these people is due to less employment caused by discrimination and poor education.

Since the aboriginal community's income is low, they face many socioeconomic disadvantages. In comparison to non-aboriginal people, they are unable to receive adequate health care due to their low wages. Because of their low wages, native people are unable to afford costly disease care. In addition, lower-income has a negative impact on the quality of their homes and living conditions (Baker et al. 2016, pp 219-232). According to a survey, they experience health inequity as a consequence of their low socioeconomic status, resulting in poor health and a reduced life span than non-aboriginal people. In addition, low income increases the likelihood of incarceration among them (Parliament of Australia 2021). Poverty is also leading to an increase in hunger among aboriginal communities. Furthermore, because of their poor wages, they are forced to eat low-cost, unhealthy food (Davy 2016, p. 209).

Racism and racial discrimination

Racism and discrimination are one of the main factors that are leading this aboriginal society to a backward stage. Racism and discrimination can be considered as discriminating a person according to their cultural, social and racial belief (Jonason 2015, pp. 47-51). This type of racism can be verbally abusive to another person. It can lower down their moral value. Prolonged racism can affect a person’s mental state, which can increase the negative feeling among them. This type of social racism can increase the cultural gap between two communities. Due to this, they might become more introverts. Also, racism can lead to poor health of a person due to stress (Jonason 2015, pp. 47-51).

According to the evidence, the racism in the Australian community against aboriginal people has been stated science colonization period (MacDonald and Steenbeek 2015, pp. 32-46). Racism causing great inequality regarding the quality of life among these aboriginal people (Jonason 2015, pp. 47-51). According to a report, the rate of racism against the aboriginal community is very high. The author conducted their study on 33833 Victorian aboriginal adults. According to their finding, they mention most of these people have experienced racism at some point in their life, which affected them negatively (Markwick et al. 2019, pp. 1-14). Also, the rate of institutional racism is high against aboriginal people. In the education sector, this is creating a large gap among aboriginal and non-aboriginal people. This is creating a high droop rate of aboriginal students (un.org, 2021).

According to some evidence, aboriginal people get discriminated against in the health care sector. They do not get proper treatment compared to non-aboriginal people. Some aboriginal people reported that they are getting discriminated against by their skin colour in the healthcare sector. One of them reported that he was termed as "Blackfella" in the healthcare sector. According to the author, this type of racism increasing insecurity among aboriginal people. Due to this, the mortality rate by disease is also high among aboriginal people (Hickey 2016, pp. 725-740). As per a qualitative study, the rate of racism against aboriginal people in rural region of Australia is high. Due to this, many of the aboriginal people feel it unsafe to get admitted to a non-aboriginal hospital (Malatzky, Haines, & Glenister 2020, p. 681).

Therefore, they want to stay in their local aboriginal community-based hospital, which generally tends to have poor infrastructure. This situation causes health inequality leading to poor health of aboriginal people. According to some article, racism can be considered a barrier in Australian sectors (Bastos, Harnois & Paradies 2018, pp. 209-218). Also, aboriginal people have to face occupational racism in their workplace. This is also affecting their earning causing poverty to this group (dca.org.au, 2021). According to an article (Macedo et al. 2019, pp. 1-10), this racism has a deep impact on their socio-emotional wellbeing. It is causing behavioural changes among the aboriginal community. Due to these changes, they are becoming more culturally isolated. The author mention, racism is also affecting the childhood of the aboriginal community. They are becoming more depressed due to these psychosocial stressors (Macedo et al. 2019, pp. 1-10).

Health behaviours and lifestyle

Due to poor health perception and different cultural belief, many of the aboriginal people tend to have poor lifestyles. It can be related to poor decision making or due to poor determinants of health (Carson et al. 2020, p. 336). According to their cultural belief, the prevalence of smoking is very high among this community. The rate of smoking among pregnant woman is also high. Due to this, the prevalence of lung diseases such as asthma, lung cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is also high. According to a report, the rate of smoking, according to 2017 data, among aboriginal people, aged 15 years or more was 51%. Males have a high rate of smoking among the 25-44 age groups. The smoking rate among male is 67% (Tobacco in Australia.org 2019). According to evidence, aboriginal children are exposed to smoking at a very early stage of their life. They consider smoking as social normality (NSW Government 2020).

As par evidence, the prevalence of COPD in the aboriginal group in 2018-19 was very high. Almost 10% people of this community who are aged 45 or more has COPD problem. The number is approx 17800 people (AIHW 2020a). Female tends to has more COPD occurrence (13%) compared to male (6.7%) (AIHW 2020a). According to this report, the chance of COPD among aboriginal people was 2.3 times more compared to non-aboriginal people (AIHW 2020a). Other than COPD, the occurrence of cardiovascular disease and diabetes is also high. An aboriginal person tends to follow a poor dietary pattern and unaware of the benefit of physical activity. Both of these factors are related to the occurrence of cardiovascular disease and diabetes problem. According to an article it is mention; according to a 2018 report, the rate of cardiovascular disease among 18-24 years aboriginal people was 1.1% and 4.7% among 25-34 age groups (Agostino et al. 2020, pp. 422-427).

However, this data was based on a survey conducted on 2012-23. According to 2018-19 survey data, (AIHW 2020b) almost 42700 or 5.2% of the aboriginal people has a stroke or other heart issues. Males tend to have more heart problem compared to female. According to this report occurrence of cardiovascular disease is closely associated with the socioeconomic status of a person. Also, according to a 2018-19 report, almost 7.9% or 64100 aboriginal people are suffering from a diabetic condition (AIHW 2020c). Aboriginal people has limited knowledge about this disease also, they are unaware of chronic disease management (Berman et al. 2021, pp. 215-222). Therefore a nurse needs to promote the health of this community following the NMBA RN standard 1 "Thinks critically and analyses nursing practise" (McIlwraith and Madden, 2014, pp. 197-210; NMBA, 2021).

Conclusion

Therefore, from the above discussion, it can be concluded that aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians has to face a poor determinant of health which is affecting their life negatively. This group of people tends to have less education, a high rate of unemployment and has to face other social issues compared to non-aboriginal people. Also, due to racism in the health sector, they have to face many problems. All of these factors are affecting their well-being. Therefore, the rate of chronic diseases also increasing in this community. So, as a nurse, it is their sole duty to provide equal care irrespective of their cultural belief and promote the health of an Aboriginal community.

References

Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), 2020. Education Statistics for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, 2018-19 financial year. [online] ABS. Available at: <https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-peoples/education-statistics-aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-peoples/latest-release>

Agostino, J.W., Wong, D., Paige, E., Wade, V., Connell, C., Davey, M.E., Peiris, D.P., Fitzsimmons, D., Burgess, C.P., Mahoney, R. and Lonsdale, E., 2020. Cardiovascular disease risk assessment for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adults aged under 35 years: a consensus statement. Medical Journal of Australia, 212(9), pp.422-427.

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW), 2019a. Indigenous education and skills - Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. [online] AIHW. Available at: <https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/australias-welfare/indigenous-education-and-skills>

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW), 2019b. Indigenous employment - Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. [online] AIHW. Available at: <https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/australias-welfare/indigenous-employment>

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW), 2019c. Indigenous income and finance - Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. [online] AIHW. Available at: <https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/australias-welfare/indigenous-income-and-finance>

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW), 2020b. Cardiovascular disease, How many Australians have cardiovascular disease? - Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. [online] AIHW. Available at: <https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/heart-stroke-vascular-diseases/cardiovascular-health-compendium/contents/how-many-australians-have-cardiovascular-disease>

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW), 2020a. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), COPD - Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. [online] AIHW. Available at: <https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/chronic-respiratory-conditions/copd/contents/copd>

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW), 2020c. Diabetes, How many Australians have diabetes? - Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. [online] AIHW. Available at: <https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/diabetes/diabetes/contents/how-many-australians-have-diabetes>

Parliament of Australia (APH), 2021. Chapter 13 - Indigenous Australians – Parliament of Australia. [online] APH. Available at: <https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Community_Affairs/Completed_inquiries/2002-04/poverty/report/c13#:~:text=Most%20indicators%20of%20poverty%20and,living%20below%20the%20poverty%20line.>

Baker, E., Lester, L.H., Bentley, R. and Beer, A., 2016. Poor housing quality: Prevalence and health effects. Journal of Prevention & Intervention in the Community, 44(4), pp.219-232.

Bastos, J.L., Harnois, C.E. and Paradies, Y.C., 2018. Health care barriers, racism, and intersectionality in Australia. Social Science & Medicine, 199, pp.209-218.

Berman, A., Frandsen, G., Snyder, S., Levett-Jones, T. and Burston, A., 2021. Kozier and Erb's Fundamentals of Nursing, Volumes 1-3. [online] www.booktopia.com.au. Available at: <https://www.booktopia.com.au/kozier-and-erb-s-fundamentals-of-nursing-volumes-1-3-audrey-berman/book/9781488626593.html> pp. 215-222.

Carson, B., Dunbar, T., Chenhall, R.D. and Bailie, R. eds., 2020. Social determinants of Indigenous health. Routledge. p. 336.

Cashman, P.M., Allan, N.A., Clark, K.K., Butler, M.T., Massey, P.D. and Durrheim, D.N., 2016. Closing the gap in Australian Aboriginal infant immunisation rates--the development and review of a pre-call strategy. BMC public health, 16(1), pp.1-7.

Davy, D., 2016. Australia’s efforts to improve food security for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Health and human rights, 18(2), p.209.

Gumà, J., Solé-Auró, A. and Arpino, B., 2019. Examining social determinants of health: the role of education, household arrangements and country groups by gender. BMC public health, 19(1), pp.1-9.

NSW Government, 2020. Aboriginal communities and smoking - Tobacco and smoking. [online] NSW Government. Available at: <https://www.health.nsw.gov.au/tobacco/Pages/aboriginal-communities-smoking.aspx>

Hickey, S.D., 2016. ‘They say I’m not a typical Blackfella’: Experiences of racism and ontological insecurity in urban Australia. Journal of Sociology, 52(4), pp.725-740.

Indigenous literacy foundation 2021. Indigenous literacy | Indigenous Literacy Foundation. [online] Indigenous literacy foundation Available at: <https://www.indigenousliteracyfoundation.org.au/what-is-indigenous-literacy>

Jonason, P.K., 2015. How “dark” personality traits and perceptions come together to predict racism in Australia. Personality and Individual Differences, 72, pp.47-51.

MacDonald, C. and Steenbeek, A., 2015. The impact of colonization and western assimilation on health and wellbeing of Canadian Aboriginal people. International Journal of Regional and Local History, 10(1), pp.32-46.

Macedo, D.M., Smithers, L.G., Roberts, R.M., Paradies, Y. and Jamieson, L.M., 2019. Effects of racism on the socio-emotional wellbeing of Aboriginal Australian children. International journal for equity in health, 18(1), pp.1-10.

Malatzky, C., Haines, H. and Glenister, K., 2020. Racism in a place of healthcare: The qualitative case of a rural Australian hospital. Journal of Community Medicine & Health Education, 10(3), p. 681

Markwick, A., Ansari, Z., Clinch, D. and McNeil, J., 2019. Experiences of racism among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adults living in the Australian state of Victoria: a cross-sectional population-based study. BMC Public Health, 19(1), pp.1-14.

Martin, A.J., Ginns, P., Anderson, M., Gibson, R. and Bishop, M., 2021. Motivation and engagement among Indigenous (Aboriginal Australian) and non-Indigenous students. Educational Psychology, pp.1-21.

Mcllwraith, J. and Madden, B., 2014. Health Care & the Law 6th edition. [online] Thomson Reuters Australia. Available at: <https://legal.thomsonreuters.com.au/health-care-the-law-6th-edition/productdetail/120978> pp. 197-210.

Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia (NMBA), 2021. Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia - Registered nurse standards for practice. [online] Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia. Available at: <https://www.nursingmidwiferyboard.gov.au/codes-guidelines-statements/professional-standards/registered-nurse-standards-for-practice.aspx>

Rheault, H., Coyer, F., Jones, L. and Bonner, A., 2019. Health literacy in Indigenous people with chronic disease living in remote Australia. BMC health services research, 19(1), pp.1-10.

Sullivan, K., McConney, A. and Perry, L.B., 2018. A comparison of rural educational disadvantage in Australia, Canada, and New Zealand using OECD’s PISA. Sage Open, 8(4), p.215.

Taylor, E.V., Lalovic, A. and Thompson, S.C., 2019. Beyond enrolments: a systematic review exploring the factors affecting the retention of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health students in the tertiary education system. International journal for equity in health, 18(1), pp.1-19.

Tobacco in Australia. 2019. 8.3 Prevalence of tobacco use among Aboriginal peoples and Torres Strait Islanders - Tobacco in Australia. [online] Tobacco in Australia.

un.org, 2021. Education | United Nations For Indigenous Peoples. [online] United Nations For Indigenous Peoples | Indigenous Peoples.

Are you seeking reliable essay help from academic experts in the UK? At Myassignmenthelp.co.uk, we have searched high and low to recruit the top paper writers in the UK who can provide you with the best assignment help. Most of these professionals have completed their PhDs from top universities in the UK. Therefore, they’re the best at resolving every "Who can do my assignment for me?" query.

These professionals undergo intense training to provide coursework help services within strict deadlines. Hence, you don’t have to waste precious seconds wondering, “Can your experts write my assignment within the deadline?" Instead, rest assured that our experts will consistently deliver top-quality work within the due date.